BPFNA Working Group on Centering Black Lives in Pursuit of Racial Justice

Applications due by January 20, 2016

Black lives in the United States are currently lost at a rate of one person every 28 hours, many to agents of the State protected by overwhelming impunity. Furthermore, 1 in 3 black males born in 2001 are at risk of imprisonment during their lifetimes as “zero tolerance” policies criminalize minor, nonviolent transgressions and funnel Black children from public schools into the juvenile and criminal justice system. These statistics, indicating a “public school to prison pipeline,” reveal (only in part) the depths of the current and historic attack on Black lives in the United States but do no justice to the generations of trauma that this systemic dehumanization creates.

In doing the work of centering justice for Black lives within the context of today’s society, particularly within the United States (one of BPFNA – Bautistas por la Paz’s four home nations), we seek to strike directly against the roots of latent white supremacy and militarism, which are exported internationally to fuel similarly sanctioned attacks on the lives of people outside of North America, living in their own countries of origin, on a global scale. This manifests in the policing and militarization of US borders and those of US economic allies, such as Mexico and Israel, where Black and Brown bodies are under attack in an effort to uphold white supremacist capitalism.

Despite the persistence of systems, coordinated resistance efforts like the Movement for Black Lives herald the humanity and beauty of black and brown persons, continue to challenge us with a vision of justice born out of community in struggle. Radical love and resistance are at the core of the Movement for Black Lives, United We Dream, and Not1More, to name a few.

In response to the Movement for Black Lives’ demand, an interruption to the status quo is required. In solidarity with the disruption, movement that support the importance of Black lives, and BPFNA - Bautistas por la Paz’ commitment to peace rooted in justice, is committed to examining how dehumanizing systems are manifest within our own structures and community.

The BPFNA ~ Bautistas por la Paz seeks to center the sanctity of Black Lives in our work for peace and justice. Toward this end, a Working Group was formed.